Artist statement
As a preschooler, Tamryn Spruill, an Army brat, appeared in a local English-language newspaper in Vicenza, Italy. In the photo accompanying the article, she is seated at an art table—her face reflecting total concentration as she cuts pieces of construction paper with kiddie scissors. Above the photo, the headline reads: “Education—Where it all begins (pages 6-7).” The “Where It All Begins” part, in context with the photo, Tamryn considers to be validation of a lifelong inclination to make things from paper.
That the photo captures her working quietly in the background, Tamryn considers a brutally honest depiction of her personality. And she also finds it revealing of her life experiences, growing up girl, Black, and gay.
It is an impulse to which she finally surrendered well as an adulthood. An oddball middle kid in a traditional family, these whimsies were neither understood nor valued. Only in a time of personal crisis did she discover their true vitality through a visual arts practice she values as medicine for self-preservation. Fully engrossed in this process now, Tamryn perceives the twinkling birth of an artistic language all her own.
Through her usual medium of acrylic on canvas with collage elements, Tamryn channels dreams, both sleeping and awake. She also conjures characters from literature and depicts them with their interiorities exposed—turned inside-out in ways sometimes delicate, at other times pronounced.
Tamryn's obsession with paper also involves an obsession with letters. An avid reader and writer since the respective ages of two and five, she holds a BA in Spanish/Journalism (University of South Carolina) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Goddard College). Today, she is an award-winning journalist and author, currently writing a book about the WNBA called COURT QUEENS (for ABRAMS Books).
That the photo captures her working quietly in the background, Tamryn considers a brutally honest depiction of her personality. And she also finds it revealing of her life experiences, growing up girl, Black, and gay.
It is an impulse to which she finally surrendered well as an adulthood. An oddball middle kid in a traditional family, these whimsies were neither understood nor valued. Only in a time of personal crisis did she discover their true vitality through a visual arts practice she values as medicine for self-preservation. Fully engrossed in this process now, Tamryn perceives the twinkling birth of an artistic language all her own.
Through her usual medium of acrylic on canvas with collage elements, Tamryn channels dreams, both sleeping and awake. She also conjures characters from literature and depicts them with their interiorities exposed—turned inside-out in ways sometimes delicate, at other times pronounced.
Tamryn's obsession with paper also involves an obsession with letters. An avid reader and writer since the respective ages of two and five, she holds a BA in Spanish/Journalism (University of South Carolina) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Goddard College). Today, she is an award-winning journalist and author, currently writing a book about the WNBA called COURT QUEENS (for ABRAMS Books).
Woman of the World
"Woman of the World" examines the colors, complexities, beauties and ravages of motherhood. It was inspired by the poetry collection What Mothers Withhold by Elizabeth Kropf (Finishing Line Press 2021) and appears on the book's cover.
Armbar I.V. (in a Coma): 72 Objects
ARMBAR I.V. (IN A COMA): 72 OBJECTS is a multimedia poetry project by Tamryn Spruill. She is creating a multimedia poem for each of the 72 objects which appeared in Marina Abramovic's noted performance piece, Rhythm O. Although deeply personal and unique to her life experiences, the poems in this collection also are a meditation on emptiness or the absence of inherent meaning in the objects humans engage with in everyday life.
OTHER WORK
MASK MAGAZINE
Till I'm Up On My Feet Again
RECOVERING THE SELF
On Healing from Trauma: Dissolving the Robot Self
FINERY
The All-Star Fantasy League
UNTHINKABLE CREATURES CHAPBOOK PRESS
Scratch the Bone
PITKIN REVIEW
A New and Soothing Appendage
The Space between Kisses
ROBOCUP PRESS
The Opposite of Robots: Poems
L.E.S. REVIEW
woeful masturbation
Till I'm Up On My Feet Again
RECOVERING THE SELF
On Healing from Trauma: Dissolving the Robot Self
FINERY
The All-Star Fantasy League
UNTHINKABLE CREATURES CHAPBOOK PRESS
Scratch the Bone
PITKIN REVIEW
A New and Soothing Appendage
The Space between Kisses
ROBOCUP PRESS
The Opposite of Robots: Poems
L.E.S. REVIEW
woeful masturbation
Copyright © 2022 Tamryn Spruill.